"30 Minutes or Less" looks at what happens when a pizza delivery guy ends up an unwilling bank robber.
The fast-paced buddy comedy (the movie's only 83 minutes long) works best when it focuses on the central players. Sadly, that focus gets shattered by the latest version of feces in a punch bowl.
Nick (Jesse Eisenberg) delivers pizzas, a job that goes from dead-end to deadly when he's grabbed by a pair of losers (Danny McBride, Nick Swardson) who need money to hire a hitman.
They strap a bomb to Nick's chest and order him to rob a bank. Nick turns to his only friend, Chet (Aziz Ansari), to help with the heist.
The laid-back (nearly comatose) Eisenberg and the frantic Ansari strike a perfect comic harmony. When director Ruben Fleischer keeps the focus on these two guys -- the best idiot buddies since Harold and Kumar went to White Castle -- the movie is pure, energetic fun.
Then McBride enters the picture as the mastermind behind the robbery. His obnoxious, over-the-top comedy style sucks the life and fun right out of the movie. This guy isn't acting. He just figures if he talks loud enough no one will notice he has the comedic skills of a toad.
Swardson, the other partner in crime, tries to make it work, but when a performance is as bad as McBride's, nothing can cut the smell.
"30 Minutes or Less" is not as good as Fleischer's previous work, "Zombieland," because his direction is more conservative. Had he pushed his latest work to be as quirky as his last outing maybe McBride's performance wouldn't have been as noticeable. (Who am I kidding? Nothing can mask McBride.) Besides, Michael Diliberti's script follows such a predictable line, Fleischer didn't have a lot of room to push.
The name pretty much sums it up. There's about "30 Minutes or Less" of comedy in this film.
TV and movie critic Rick Bentley can be reached at rbentley@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6355. Read his blog at fresnobeehive.com.
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